The Detective's Damsel

xiv.

A HAND ON Corinna's shoulder startled her into consciousness immediately, the sudden touch sending her jolting upright with a gasp. Her heart thundered in her rib cage as she caught her breath, her mind reeling as her dream dissipated and memories of the previous day flooded back. The encounter with Niklos, Ivan disappearing with Elizabeth, a deeply confused Ferenc... Corinna's eyes struggled to adjust to the darkness of the servant living area, but eventually she could make out small details like the dead fire and the abandoned quilt in front of it.

And the pair of black eyes staring her down with concern.

"What has happened?" Corinna asked, her eyelids heavy with fatigue.

"Nothing." Knight's voice was low and rumbly, making Corinna wonder if he had a good singing voice. He could certainly lull her back to sleep with it. "You...uh...you were talking in your sleep. Thrashing around like someone was hurting you."

Corinna shifted a few inches away from him to curl her legs beneath her, and his hand fell from her shoulder. She hadn't realized how warm his palm was until it disappeared. Knight was kneeling on the ground beside the couch, his knees atop her abandoned quilt. She must have kicked it off in the middle of the night. "I am sorry to have interrupted your sleep," she said.

Knight shook his head. "I couldn't sleep anyway." His eyes were surprisingly clear—he must have been awake for some time, though she hoped it was due to the hard surface of the ground and not because of her. "Are you okay?"

Corinna nodded, surprised when she found herself telling him the truth. "I'm afraid I have been experiencing night terrors recently. I am glad you woke me, else I may have woken up screaming and alerted Niklos." Night terrors seemed the best way of explaining what had been happening to her lately. The dream with Elizabeth holding the bloodied knife, it seemed, was only the beginning. Not that Knight could have known what he woke her from, but it had been far from pleasant. This time, Corinna had seen flashes of images: Elizabeth's knife, a woman's lifeless eyes, the voice of someone screaming, footsteps against a forest path, a pair of dark eyes reflecting a blazing fire, all on repeat.

Her partner nodded. She could only see a faint outline of him in the dark, but he appeared to be lost in thought as he processed her information. Thankfully, his next question had nothing to do with the content of her dream. "When did they start? The night terrors?"

"My first night at the academy." Ivan had heard her, she remembered. He thought she was scared of the bogeyman.

Knight hummed under his breath. "I wonder if it's a side effect of time-travel."

Somehow, Corinna knew it wasn't. The dreams all came after one very substantial accusation aimed directly at her sister. These dreams were either a manifestation of her worst fears or the harsh truth. Either way, the last thing she wanted to do was discuss such matters with Knight.

"I am sorry for reading your file," she blurted out instead. Knight's dark head shot upright, clearly not expecting such a swift change of subject. Hopefully he would be so caught off-guard he would not question her motives for altering the topic of discussion. "I felt that it was necessary, seeing as you seem to know everything about my family and yet I know nothing about you."

Knight ran a hand through his hair, his gaze wary. He seemed to be fighting an internal battle with himself on how much information he should be telling her. "It makes sense," he said finally. "In fact, if it wasn't my information you used against me back at Elizabeth's house, I might even be impressed."

Corinna's laugh was light. "I have never been more afraid in my life. You see, I have been sheltered and obedient from birth. I did the first thing I could think to do. It was an act of desperation. I thought you were going to kill us." Her eyes had fully adjusted to the dark, and she could feel his gaze on her as she tugged on a fraying strand of her waistcoat.